Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of PeteKing
PeteKing

asked on

rpc service hangs on startup

Hi. We're having a problem with an NT4 server, which keeps on hanging on logoff (possibly only logoffs via PCanywhere, but we haven't tested that theory)

On restarts, the server can be pinged, but the rpc functions aren't active (no shares, remote connections etc.) for about 10-15 minutes
Startups also take a very long time and, at the login screen, a message box comes up with the services.exe error:

The procedure entry point system function 035 could not be located in the dynamic link library ADVAPI32.dll

Although the server has recovered every time so far, we'd rather like to know what the underlying problem is and if there is a way to fix it.

The server has been a bit flaky for a long time, but only started with this problem a couple of days ago. More RAM had been put in that morning and O&O defrag software had been installed the week before - those are the only recent changes.

As this is a 24/7 critical server, it's pretty urgent we get a grip on the problem (hence the point level) so any ideas would be gratefully received.
Avatar of spareticus
spareticus

did you apply the recent microsoft security patches?
Avatar of PeteKing

ASKER

No. We haven't applied those patches (we find it difficult to schedule the server for downtime).
you may need to re-apply sp6a, the downtime will be the time the server needs to re-start

cheers
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of ahmedbahgat
ahmedbahgat

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
We have reapplied SP6a.
Following a clean local reboot, we didn't get the error message box at the login screen.

Unfortunately since the server is working at the moment, we are not allowed to do anything that might cause it to fail (e.g. logging in/out), so we cannot test to see if this has fixed the problem. We'll have to schedule it in, which will be a few days.

 
Glad you have become at least a bit more stable.  By re-applying the SP though, you may have invalidated some of your security patches.  Schedule your test time, and time to reboot again if you need to re-apply some security patches.
In the end, we decided to remove PCanywhere **and** SP6a/patch the machine. One of these fixed the problem, but I'm not sure which.